Support to partnerships between Danish companies and companies in partner countries has in various forms been an element of the Danish development assistance for more than 20 years, initially under the Private Sector Development Programme, subsequently under the Business-to-Business (B2B) Programme and latest under the Danida Business Partnership Programme.
This assignment is an evaluation of the B2B Programme. Business partnerships were supported by Danida through the B2B Programme from July 2006 to June 2011. The overall objective of the B2B Programme was to contribute to poverty reduction by promoting economic growth and social development in developing countries. The immediate objective was to promote the establishment of long-term, sustainable and commercially viable partnerships between companies in developing countries and Danish companies, with an aim of strengthening local business development. The B2B Programme encouraged companies in developing countries and in Denmark to form such long-term, sustainable and commercially viable partnerships and supported each partnership with advice and finance. The focus of this support was to ensure a transfer of know-how and technology from the Danish partner to the local partners thereby strengthening the competitiveness of the local partner and by that, their local and international market presence. In turn, by partnering with a local company, the Danish company could gain access to new markets, raw materials and reduced production costs.
The B2B Programme supported the establishment of contact between companies and the implementation of partnerships, normally up to a period of five years. The B2B Programme support was divided into three phases: Contact phase, pilot phase and project phase. Based on application from the partner companies, the B2B Programme supported expenses in the project phase related to training, environmental efficiency, CSR activities, establishment and, to a more limited extent, equipment of the partnership. All projects were required to include CSR/environmental activities in their project proposal. The maximum amount of support for a partnership was DKK 5 million aggregated for all phases of support.
The B2B Programme operated in countries with programmatic development cooperation with Denmark (Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia, Egypt and South Africa). Furthermore, the programme was operating in China and Indonesia where only partnerships related to the environmental sector were supported.
The total number of projects supported in the project phase is around 250 and the total amount disbursed on these projects to date is approximately DKK 950 million. The existing programme documentation includes project progress reports and completion reports, an electronic reporting system of aggregated outcome indicators, annual B2B country reports and, for some countries, B2B country reviews.
The evaluation is expected to assess the support provided with regards to the DAC evaluation criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. The methodology will involve a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The evaluation will comprise the entire B2B Programme. Field work is envisaged to involve visits to Uganda and Bangladesh as well as interviews with Danish company partners and stakeholders in Denmark. Desk work will involve assessment of a sample of projects from other countries.
The evaluation is planned to be undertaken from November 2013 to June 2014. The evaluation outputs include, among others, an inception report and an evaluation report.
Section V: Award of contract
Contract No: DC3132
V.1) Date of contract award decision:
7.11.2013
V.2) Information about offers
Number of offers received: 3
V.3) Name and address of economic operator in favour of whom the contract award decision has been taken
E-mail: Telephone: Internet address: Nordic Consulting Group in joint venture with DevFin Advisors, Jemtelandsgade 1, 2300 Copenhagen S, DENMARK, ncg@ncg.dk +45 43716200, www.ncg.dk